This section provides background information related to the present disclosure and is not necessarily prior art.
Vehicle seats often include a recliner mechanism that can rotate a seatback relative to a seat bottom. Such vehicle seats can also include a release mechanism (or dump mechanism) to enable the seatback to be quickly moved from a relatively upright position to a forward dump position (e.g., to enable a passenger to ingress into and egress out of a space behind the seat such as a rear seating row). A release lever (or actuation lever) can be mounted on an upper, outboard portion of the seatback and can be connected to the release mechanism by a cable and/or link. The release lever can be manually moved by a user to actuate the release mechanism. Actuation of the release lever may also cause movement of a manual recliner handle (i.e., the handle that a user can actuate to adjust a position of the seatback between upright and reclined positions) and/or a spring attached to the manual recliner handle. Because the actuation of the release lever also moves the spring and/or manual recliner handle, a large amount of force may be necessary to actuate the release lever.